Shelves with folding brackets



Dec. 31, 1963 E. F. SCHILD SHELVES WITH FOLDING BRACKETS Filed Sept. 11, 1961 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Z N W m ,11 A .m, 2 f.

United States Patent ()fifice 3i,ll5,72 Patented Dec. 31, 1963 3,115,972 SHELVES Wll'llf FEEDING BRAQKETE dwin F. Schild, 1644 77th Ceurt, Elmwood Park, llll.

Filed Sept. 11, 1961, Ser. No. 137,692 7 Claims. (Ql. 2llll4'3 The present invention relates to improvements in shelving and particularly to a shelving assembly made of shaped sheet metal parts including a shelf and a supporting bracket with an improved attachment between the shelf and bracket accommodating pivotal movement of the bracket on the shelf between a folded storage position and an upright supporting position.

In installations for stores of the self-service type, such as grocery stores, long rows of shelving are customarily employed to display and make available the products on sale. In the original installation it is useful and practical that the shelving can be shipped disassembled and readily and easily assembled at the store by inexperienced personnel. It is therefore advantageous to reduce the number of parts which must be put together, such as by pivotally hinging the end bracket to the shelf.

A hinge arrangement to be useful and effective must not sacrifice strength. In multiple shelving store arrangeients extremely heavy loads must be carried such as by sections holding canned goods and similar heavy produce. Adjacent sections may be called upon to handle very light produce and it is important to provide shelving of such strength that certain sections do not sag out of conformity with other sections and thereby produce an unsightly effect.

It is accordingly an object of the present invention to provide an improved shelf and bracket which are pivota ly interconnected by structure which affords equal or improved strength characteristics over other unpivoted structures or over other pivotal arrangements, and wherein the shelf and bracket are maintained in accurate non-yielding relationship with loads of varying weights so as to provide an attractive uniform shelving assembly for a multiple shelving installation.

A further object of the invention is to provide a shelving assembly wherein a bracket is pivotally attached to an end of a shelf for pivotal movement between an upright support position and a folded storage position and wherein the bracket can be detached from the shelf.

A still further object of the invention is to provide an improved shelf with an end bracket pivotally attached thereto and wherein the pivotal attachment does not bear any of the forces imposed on the bracket which tend to pivot the bracket "beyond its vertical position when it is supporting the shelf, but independent improved means are provided for rigidly and reliably holding the bracket in vertical position.

A still further obiect of the invention is to provide a pivotal attachment for holding an end bracket to a shelf where the bracket is firmly held in folded position avoiding relative movement with consequent wear and rattling between parts during shipping. but where the bracket can be easily disassembled from the shelf if necessary.

A still further object of the invention is to provide an improved pivotally interconnected shelf and bracket arrangement wherein the interconnecting parts 12116 formed from the material of the shelf and bracket and wherein the bracket has an improved structure so that a single sheet of metal can be folded to provide a structural interrelationship of improved strength.

Other objects, advantages, and features will become more apparent with the teaching of the principles of t e invention in connection with the disclosure of the preferred embodiment thereof in the specification, claims and drawings, in which:

FIGURE 1 is a top plan view of the shelf bracket as laid out before it is bent to shape;

FEGURE 2 is a fragmentary perspective view of a shelving assembly constructed in accordance with the principles of the present invention;

FIGURE 3 is a fragmentary vertical sectional view showing the shelf with the end bracket in folded storage position;

FIGURE tional view FEGURE 2;

FIGURE 5 is a fragmentary sectional view similar to FGURE 4 but showing the positions of parts with the bracket being moved to folded position;

FIGURE 6 is a plan view of an end for a shelf showing the material before it has been bent;

FIGURE 7 is an exploded top plan View of an end of a shelf showing parts being assembled; and

FEGURE 8 is an end elevational view of the shelf after the parts have been assembled.

As shown on the drawings:

FIGURE 2 illustrates a shelf ltd with an end bracket 11 pivotally attached thereto and bein in upright position. he bracket has integral tabs or hooks 13 along its rear edge for positioning in vertical slots 14 in a vertical post or column 12 upon which the shelf is supported. Other forms of support columns and means of attachment of brackets may be employed, and it will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that variations may be employed in the exact structure of the shelf and end bracket utilizing the principles of the invention, and reference is made to a shaped sheet metal shelf and bracket for use in multiple shelving installations in stores, for convenience of description.

The shelf it) is shown as being formed with a main shelf part if and an end part 15, although it will be understood that the shelf lt} could be made integral of one piece. The shelf is preferably made of shaped or bent sheet metal, and if made of one piece, the shelf woul be turned down at the end and then turned in so as to provide an end surface with an inturned flange at the base. As shown, the shelf is formed of two pieces with the shelf part 26 having the end insert 15 to provide the end surface and turned in flange.

FEGURES 6 through 8 show the end part 15 which is telescopically fitted into the end of the horizontal part it). The horizontal shelf part has an upper flat planar surface with the back and front ed es bent downwardly to form vertical surfaces l7 and 125, and the lower edges of the vertical surfaces bent inwardly to form underhanging flanges l9 and 2d.

The end insert has back and front tabs 21 and 2.2 which are bent at right angles to an end wall portion 23 which will be positioned in a vertical plane when the shelf is supported in its operating horizontal position. At the base of the end wall an underhanging flange portion 24 is turned inwardly, and at the top of the end wall 23 a portion 25 is bent inwardly to be horizontal.

With the end 15 thus shaped, it is terescoped into the end of the shelf 16 as shown by the arrows in FIGURE 7. The portions 19 and 2d of the shelf which are turned under, are also turned upwardly and the metal is folded within itself so as to be doubled along the front and back in the manner illustrated in FIGURE 8. Notches 19a and are provided in portions 1% and 2%, respectively, to permit full insertion of the end 15 so as to be substantially flush with the end of the shelf 16. For reinforcement, one or more shaped longitudinally extending horizontal beams 27 may be positioned beneath the shelf in the manner shown in FIGURE 3, and suitably secured thereto such as by spot welding. Similarly, the end 15 4 is an enlarged fragmentary vertical sectaken substantially along line lX-JX of may be secured in place within end of the shelf by spot welding, or it may be otherwise suitably held therein such as by friction between the surfaces of the parts.

The shelf 16 with the end thus inserted, functions as an entity and the unit may be referred to as the shelf without reference to the separate parts, with the shelf principally including an end wall 23' with an inturned flange 24 and an upper horizontal surface.

The inturned flange 24 has spaced elongated slots 28 and 29 for receiving fingers 34 and 35, FTGURES 1, 4 and 5.

The bracket 11 is shown in FIGURE 1 before bending, with bending occurring along the dotted lines. The bracket includes a main vertical body area 39 with a lower lip 31 which is bent inwardly to provide stiffness and strength, as shown in FIGURE 4.

The body portion 3'9 of the bracket extends upwardly beyond the shelf flange 24 to substantially the top of the shelf with its upper edge being shown at in FIGURE 4. At 28 the material is doubled and bent downwardly to provide an inwardl facing stop or limiting plate 32 which engages the end wall 23 of the shelf in surface-tosurface engagement. Thus the portion of the bracket 11 which extends above the inturned shelf flange 24 provides a vertical aligning stop which holds the bracket in vertical position. The outer vertical planar surface of the portion will engage another end bracket of an adjacent shelf in surface-to-surface contact additionally preventing tilting of the bracket. Thus the bracket fl is held in vertical position by its inner surface 32 engaging the outer surface of the vertical end 23 of the shelf. These surfaces will be held in contact due to forces applied to the outer surface of the bracket 3%), and due to the frictional engagement of the bottom surface of the flange 2 resting on a ledge 33 formed on the bracket.

The ledge 33 is provided by bending material laterally inwardly at the base of the vertical inner surface 32 of the bracket. The ledge thus provides a strong support, transmitting the vertical weight of the shelf directly to the doubled material at the upper end of the bracket 11.

The ledge 33 serves a dual function, in also providing part of a hinge connection between the bracket 11 and shelf It Fingers 34 and 35 are formed such as by cuts 36 extending into the ledge 33, and the fingers 34 are bent upwardly to a downwardly facing concave arcuate shape. The ends of the fingers are again turned upwardly to provide a snap over locking surface adjacent the finger end that prevents the bracket from falling off the shelf.

For holding the bracket on the shelf in its folded storage position, as shown in FTGURE 3, the bracket 11 shown as being folded to the storage position in FIGURE 5, the position of the finger 34 is important.

Inasmuch as both fingers and both slots are substantially the same in construction, only the finger 34 and the slot 29 need be described in detail, as shown in FIGURES 4 and 5. The slot 29 is spaced inwardly from the edge 24a a distance d. The snap over surface 37 of the finger is spaced above the ledge 33 a distance d which is slightly smaller than the distance d. This provides an interference fit between the snap over surface 37 of the finger and the inner edge 29a of the slot 29. Thus, as shown in FIGURE 5, the bracket ll cannot drop away from the shelf it). However, disassembly can occur by drawing downwardly on the bracket 11 in the position of FIGURE ,5, whereupon the snap over edge 37 will ride over the inner surface 290, and the finger 3 for this purpose has slight resiliency. Actually, the resiliency may be substantially negligible and metal of adequate strength prop- -erties for the shelf will have adequate resiliency to permit the parts to be snapped together when assembled. The finger 34 is turned slightly upwardly at its extreme end so that the snap over surface is inclined for driving the parts together. In other words, for assembly the bracket will be pQ it i d in th folded storage position and the fingers 4 forced into the slots by applying a force against the outer surface of the bracket.

in operation, the shelf lit has brackets Ill fitted to each end by driving the fingers 254 and 35' into the slots. The shelves are stacked and shipped with the brackets in their folded storage positi n. When the shelves are to be erected on location, each bracket is pivoted to the upright supporting position shown in FIGURE 4, with the ledge beneath the flange 24, and the inner surface 3-2 of the bracket against the end 23 of the shelf. in multiple shelving installations adjacent brackets will be positioned against each other, and the width of the folded bracket material at the ends of the shelf will not be Slliilciently thick to cause any substantial gap in the horizontal shelf surface, and the bracket material will serve a dual function in aiding in supporting the weight of th shelf and also maintaining the bracket in vertical position with respect to the shelf. The upwardly extending finger is spaced above the ledge and is also spaced above the upper surface of the flange 24 and functions to hold the bracket to the shelf with the bracket in the folded position shown in FIGURE 3. in the folded position the 31 of the bracket strikes the beam 2'7 which holds the bracket 11 at an angle with respect to the shelf 16, although since the bracket is folded it is out of the way so that shelves can be stacked for storage and shipping. The bracket is reliably held on the shelf and can be easily pivoted to operating support position, and there is no chance of improper assembl" of parts.

The drawings and specification present a detailed disclosure of the preferred embodiments of the invention, and it is to be understood that the invention is not limited to the specific forms disclosed, but covers all modifications, changes and alternative constructions and methods falling within the scope of the principles taught by the invention.

1 claim as my invention:

1. in a shelving assembly with a formed metal shelf turned down and in at its ends to form a flange and having a metal bracket for demountably securing to a support, an attachment between the shelf and bracket which accommodates pivotal movement of the bracket between a folded storage position and an upright supporting position comprising spaced elongated slots spaced inwardly from the edge of the turned in flangeunder the shelf, a lateral ledge formed of a portion of metal turned laterally inwardly from the bracket extending in supporting relationhsip beneath said turned in flange, 21 vertical aligning stop formed of a portion of the metal bracket and extending vertically upwardly for surface to surface aligning engagement with the turned down end of the shelf, and fingers cut from said ledge and turned upwardly in a downwardly facing concave shape and spaced above the ledge, and positioned to enter the slots with an interference fit to hold the bracket pivotally on the shelf.

2. in a shelving assembly with a formed metal shelf turned down and in at its ends to form a and having a metal bracket for demountably secui ng to a support, an attachment between the shelf and bracket which accommodates pivotal movement of the bracket between a folded storage position and an upright supporting pee"- tion comprising an opening formed in the turned in flange at an end of the shelf, a lateral ledge projecting laterally inwardly from the bracket beneath the turned in flange in upmight position of [the bracket, and a finger on said bracket projecting upwardly through said opening with a downwardly facing holding surface, said finger positioned above said ledge with a space therebetween in upright position of the bracket, said space being less than the space between said opening and the edge of the turned in flange to pivotally hold the bracket on the shelf.

3. A demountable shelving asesrnbly for supporting on a back member comprising a horizontal flat sheet metal shelf having a portion turned down to form a vertical end surface with said portion turned inwardly at the bottom of the end surface forming a support and attachment flange, a vertical end bracket adapted for pivotal movement from a storage position beneath the shelf to a vertical support position and having a support and attachment ledge projecting laterally from the inner surface of the bracket extending supportingly beneath the shelf attachment flange, said end bracket having a stop plate extending vertically upwardly for limiting pivotal movement of the bracket in vertical support position, a hinge finger on said end bracket, a hinge slot in said shelf flange spaced inwardly from the edge of the flange and receiving said finger, said finger (projecting arcuately upwardly from the end bracket ledge and shaped to slide through the slot with an interference fit with the edge of the slot in storage position of the bracket, and to be positioned out of engagement and above the flange with the bracket in support position, said stop plate holding the bnacket upright by engagement with the shelf end surface, and means on said end bracket for connecting it to the back member.

4. A demountable shelving assembly for supporting on a back member comprising a horizontal flat sheet metal shelf having means for mounting the shelf on the back member and having a portion turned down to form a ventical end surface with said portion turned inwardly at the bottom of the end surface forming a support and attachment flange, a vertical end bracket adapted for pivotal movement from a storage position beneath the shelf [to a vertical support position and having a support and attachment ledge projecting laterally from the inner surface of the bracket extending supportingly beneath the shelf attachment flange, said end bracket having a stop plate extending vertically upwardly for limiting pivota1 movement of the bracket in vertical support position, a hinge finger on said end bracket, a hinge slot in said shelf flange spaced inwardly from the edge of the flange and receiving said finger, said finger formed by laterally extending cuts in the ledge and projecting upwardly in a downwardly facing arc with \the end turned upwardly to form a snap over locking surface adjacent the end, said locking surface spaced above the ledge a distance slightly less than the distance of said slot from the edge of said flange so that the finger releasably and pivotally holds the bracket on the shelf.

5. In a shelving assembly with a formed metal shelf turned down and in at its ends to form a flange and having a metal bracket for demountably securing to a support, an attachment between the shelf and bracket which accommodates pivotal movement of the bracket between a folded storage position and an upright supporting position comprising an opening formed in the turned in flange at an end of the shelf, a lateral ledge projecting inwardly from the bracket beneath the turned in flange, and a finger on said bracket projecting upwardly through said opening and being resilient and adapted to ride over the edge of the opening as the bracket is forcibly separated from the shelf in folded position.

6. In a shelving assembly with a shelf having an end with a vertical end surface, a bracket for detachably mounting on the shelf, means pivotally connecting the bracket at the end of the shelf for pivotal movement about a horizontal axis between a vertical support position and a folded storage position below the shelf, and a vertical extension on the bracket having an inwardly facing stop surface engaging said end surface 'of the shelf and positioning the bracket in said vertical support position.

7. In a shelving assembly with a shelf having a vertical end surface, a bracket for mounting on the end of the shelf, means pivotally connecting the bracket to the shelf for pivotal movement about a horizontal axis between a vertical support position and a folded storage position below the shelf, and a vertical stop plate extending upwardly from the bracket having a vertical planar inner surface for engaging the end surface of the shelf, and having a vertical planar outer surface for engagement with a vertical planar outer surface of a plate of an ad jacent bracket, said shelf bracket plate being free of projections on said outer surface.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,005,593 Onions June 18, 1935 2,028,417 Skar Jan. 21, 1936 2,912,119 Robinson Nov. 10, 1959 FOREIGN PATENTS 40,278 France Feb. 12, 1932 570,153 Italy Dec. 4, 1957 1,073,916 France Mar. 31, 1954 

2. IN A SHELVING ASSEMBLY WITH A FORMED METAL SHELF TURNED DOWN AND IN AT ITS ENDS TO FORM A FLANGE AND HAVING A METAL BRACKET FOR DEMOUNTABLY SECURING TO A SUPPORT, AN ATTACHMENT BETWEEN THE SHELF AND BRACKET WHICH ACCOMMODATES PIVOTAL MOVEMENT OF THE BRACKET BETWEEN A FOLDED STORAGE POSITION AND AN UPRIGHT SUPPORTING POSITION COMPRISING AN OPENING FORMED IN THE TURNED IN FLANGE AT AN END OF THE SHELF, A LATERAL LEDGE PROJECTING LATERALLY INWARDLY FROM THE BRACKET BENEATH THE TURNED IN FLANGE IN UPRIGHT POSITION OF THE BRACKET, AND A FINGER ON SAID 